The importance of testing the accuracy of a proposed structural design can not be understated. Before a structural design layout is physically manufactured, numerous tests are performed to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the design. Engineers and designers attempt to anticipate every possible situation that may subject the design to failure. To facilitate the testing conditions, engineers set benchmarks or design criteria that the design must meet to be considered a successful design. For example, an engineer analyzing a bolted joint design would subject his design to different conditions in order to determine whether the bolted joint design satisfies predetermined design criteria and under what condition the bolt design will loosen, break, slip or fail. By testing and analyzing the bolted joint design, the engineer is able to redesign the structural member blueprint until the design successfully meets the predetermined benchmarks.
Conventional structural design analysis utilized conservative benchmark estimates or worst case scenarios to determine under what conditions the structural member would fail. These conservative estimates, however, often resulted in the failure of a structural design for a multitude of reasons. First, analyzing a structural design using a conservative benchmark estimate yields simply a binary answer. The structural design either passed an established benchmark or failed an established benchmark. Second, this binary result did not help the engineers to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the design. Third, a variance inherently associated with each conservative benchmark often results in a failed structural member even though the design satisfied the conservative estimate. Fourth, the use of conservative benchmarks often resulted in an “over-designed” structural member, thus increasing in the design and production cost of the member. In light of the problems encountered using conventional structural member design analysis, a method for statistically analyzing a structural design is needed.
The present invention is directed to overcome one or more of the problems set forth above.